NEW DELHI, Sept. 15 -- Poor administration has left Indian hockey on shaky ground ahead of the Asian Games in Japan, which begin on Saturday. There have been some promising showings lately, but the Hockey India League (HIL) is now staring at an existential crisis. With very little time left before the third edition - scheduled between late December and early February - and a pre-tournament mini-auction looming, franchises are pulling out. "Out of the eight teams, right now, only APL Pipers, Vedanta Kalinga Lancers and Hyderabad Toofans are on board for the HIL. The eighth team - HIL Governing Council team - was anyway a temporary outfit and cannot be a permanent solution," a Hockey India (HI) official told HT on condition of anonymity. The other four teams - JSW Soorma Hockey Club, Accord Tamil Nadu Dragons, Shrachi Bengal Tigers, and Ranchi Royals - have either told Hockey India (HI) they are not taking part (some on paper, some verbally) or are non-committal about participation. The situation is even more dire in the women's HIL where only APL Pipers have confirmed participation, with Ranchi Royals, Shrachi Bengal Tigers and JSW Soorma Hockey Club either being non-committal or informing the federation about their inability to participate. "At present, the women's league looks very difficult," said the official. The situation has arisen due to multiple factors, chiefly the financial viability of the league and its franchises. In some cases, some teams do not want to work with certain HI officials. "It requires a major push from all stakeholders to make the league happen. If things remain as is, we really may not have a league at all," another HI official admitted to HT. This exodus of teams is heavily compounded by a major administrative rift within HI, primarily between president Dilip Tirkey and secretary general Bhola Nath Singh. The internal power struggle has paralysed decision-making right before the federation's upcoming elections. Amidst this chaos, Tirkey on Saturday stripped HI director general RK Srivastava of his powers and on Monday introduced Ranjit Gill as the acting director general in a meeting with sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya. Interestingly, despite being relieved of his administrative control, Srivastava still attended the announcement of the Asian Champions Trophy in Mohali on Monday with Bhola Nath calling Tirkey's notice illegal as it was done without taking the Executive Board's (EB) approval. "The main problem is the elections. Until the elections take place, the rift between the two sides will continue and the sport will continue to suffer. The EB was formed on October 1, 2022. So the four-year term is about to be over. Once the elections happen, everything will fall into place," said the HI official. HI, meanwhile, has called an emergent executive board meeting, scheduled for September 18 in an attempt to end the infighting within the federation. Sensing the gravity of the situation, sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya held a meeting with HI officials and HIL franchise owners to draw up a survival roadmap. Apart from team officials, Tirkey, Gill, secretary (sports) and SAI director general Hari Ranjan Rao, TOPS CEO NS Johal also attended the meeting where Bhola Nath joined virtually, a ministry official told HT. "He (Minister) told all the stakeholders to work out a plan for the financial stability of the league and welfare of the players," the official said. The minister gave a month to form a body and chart out a plan on the sustainability of HIL. "The sports minister has given time till October 14. From the discussions what came out was that a body needs to be formed which will run the administration of HIL where the franchises will also have a stake. The model needs to be worked upon," a team official present in the meeting told HT. It has been learnt that a new Bengaluru franchise is interested while a replacement for the Chennai team is being worked upon. While HIL scrambles to survive, international hockey is set for a return to Punjab as chief minister Bhagwant Mann announced on Monday in Mohali that the Asian Champions Trophy will be held in Jalandhar and Mohali from October 27 to November 5. The state government has sanctioned Rs.25.4 crore for the event. Mann also announced that Punjab is ready to field one team each for men and women for the HIL. The Champions Trophy will feature India, South Korea, Malaysia, China, Japan and Pakistan. While Mann confidently stated that Pakistan will partake in the six-nation event, their participation will, for obvious reasons, be in doubt till the last minute. Pakistan notably withdrew from both the Asia Cup (held in Rajgir) and Junior World Cup (Tamil Nadu) last year. Oman and Bangladesh are the standby teams....